Indi Hartwell & Other NXT Talent Work Dark Matches Before Smackdown

Several talents from NXT have been wrestling dark matches before RAW and Smackdown as of late. The latest to be given a look in a main roster untelevised match is now Indi Hartwell. She wrestled Aliyah in Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse before Smackdown last night.

The 24-year-old Hartwell signed with WWE in late 2019. She was trained by the PCW Academy in Australia and made her pro debut as a 19-year-old in 2016. Recently on NXT, Hartwell and Candice LeRae lost the NXT tag-team championships to Io Shirai and Zoey Stark. Hartwell and LeRae had won the titles from Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon in May.

Hartwell’s brother-figure from the Way, Austin Theory, also wrestled before Smackdown. He took on Odyssey Jones, who is currently involved in the NXT Breakout tournament.

With so many NXT talents wrestling dark matches lately the subject of what NXT is in relation to the main roster has been speculated on by many. According to reporter Jon Alba, he’s heard that internally WWE considers NXT its developmental territory.

“Sources in WWE tell me NXT is officially viewed internally as ‘developmental,’ rather than the third brand as Paul Levesque’s team has promoted over the past few years,” Alba Tweeted.